Tynesia Boyea-Robinson, CEO of CapEQ, led participants through how best to integrate racial equity into the field of impact investing. The conversation was guided by practical lessons from a variety of industries to help participants understand why we need to apply a racial equity lens to impact investing, and how that can be done.
We examined the three strategic investment goals that drive racial equity: Power, Risk and Justice, and explored current approaches to investing in and measuring progress towards these goals. Through an interactive conversation with Tynesia, investors had an opportunity to think through a set of metrics that they can start to apply within their portfolios.
Racial disparities in business and finance are stark: 40% of the US population are people of color, but they represent only 20% of businesses with employees. The average white-owned business has over $18,000 in equity at founding, but the average Black-owned business has only $500. And only 1% of total global AUM are managed by Black people.
Impact investing as an industry has begun to solve some of these issues, but many of the systemic problems of investing have been replicated by the impact investing field. While impact investing has made great strides around ESG considerations, racial equity and racial justice has not been a major focus of the industry until recently. And this lack of a racial equity lens leaves money on the table: if 15% of Black-owned businesses were able to hire one more employee, the American economy could grow by $55 billion.
This session engaged participants to think about the financial benefits of integrating racial equity considerations into their investment decisions and key equity factors that should be included in the overall approach.
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